A million miles away from anything

We went to Los Angeles yesterday (Sunday) to look at a used car (a Ford Escape Hybrid), which we ended up deciding to buy. While we were in LA, of course, we did lots of other things, like shop and visit and eat out. We left the house at 9 am and got home around 8:30 pm. Five+ hours of driving, hundreds of dollars spent, almost a full tank of gas used up. This is what we have to do in order to look at a used car. Yes, there are a few used cars for sale in Ridgecrest, and in Palmdale, etc., but not very many. LA is where the big selection is. So to LA we went.

And the worst thing is that we have to go back in a day or two to pay for the car and pick it up. All of us have to go back -- there's no way around it. Rocket Boy can't drive himself, because then he'd be stuck with 2 cars to bring home (I'm imagining him driving one and guiding the other with one outstretched hand, as you can do with 2 bicycles, if you've got very good balance -- only maybe not for 150 miles). And we can't leave the kids in daycare while we do it, because they're in daycare from 11:30 to 5 -- 5.5 hours -- that would only give us a few minutes leeway. One small traffic jam would mess that up. So we've all got to go.

Compare this to buying a car near you -- drive over in the evening, look at the car, get a check from your local bank, back the next evening to pay for it. Maybe even get your own mechanic to look at it before you buy it. No sweat at all.

The drive to and from LA actually seems longer now that we are so familiar with it. It has so many stages: 395, Garlock Road, 14 to Mojave, drive through Mojave, 14 to Lancaster/Palmdale, 14 through the mountains, Santa Clarita, 14 through more mountains, 5 south, 405 west, and then whatever streets we need to take in LA. On the way back, when you get to Mojave you feel like you've been driving for years -- and you've still got an hour of driving left. Twenty more miles of 14, 20 miles of the Garlock Road, 10 miles of 395, 5 miles from the Ridgecrest exit to our house. On and on and on. By the time we get home it feels like we've driven to another country.

And then you get up the next morning and it's like, oh, here we are in Ridgecrest, pleasant little town (sort of, depending on my mood). Just a MILLION MILES AWAY FROM ANYTHING.

When we're in LA I'm always horrified by the traffic, the crowds. We went to the Northridge Mall so I could return a dress (macys.com lets you do that so you don't have to pay return shipping). I was delighted by the gigantic Macy's and wished I had time to look around, but of course I didn't, had to rush on to our next destination. But the mall was so crowded, every parking space filled, cars circling the enormous lot.

Ridgecrest has plenty of places to park, just no reason to (no stores).

I always look at what people are wearing in LA. Long dresses, for those who don't know, are fashionable this summer, but I just haven't been able to picture myself wearing one. Like yeah, I'm going to go to Albertson's in a ballgown. But here were women in Trader Joe's, wearing long dresses and looking fine. When we got home I looked at the long dresses on macys.com again, but they didn't look any better.

In Ridgecrest we wear shorts and tank tops.

I found myself thinking, on the drive back from LA, of alternatives. For instance, we could buy an airplane (sell a house or two first) and fly to LA. Or go to Las Vegas instead -- except that's 250 miles away, not 150. Or Reno -- but no, that's 350 miles. San Diego? 225 miles. Boulder? A mere 995 miles. Sigh.

Summer meals

Summer has finally arrived, oh yes, it is really here. 108 both yesterday and today (it looked like 109 on our patio thermometer). Actually, it's going to be cooler the next few days -- 101 or so -- but I think anything over 99 counts as summer.

Life is different at 100 degrees or more. Everything changes, from the clothes we wear, to the linens on our bed, to when (or whether) we exercise, to how we schedule shopping trips. People slow down, because hurrying, even just a little, makes you sweat.

One of the things I've had trouble with in previous summers is dinner. What to serve when it's over 100 outside and no one really feels like eating. What to cook in a kitchen that's almost that hot (the swamp cooler doesn't cool the kitchen down very well).

Now, over the past year I've intentionally simplified our meals. I decided a while back that it's OK to have only 2 dishes for dinner. It is not necessary to have a main course, a vegetable, and a starch. A main course and a vegetable will do nicely, especially when the twins are so picky. (When they're older I'll serve more food.) But in the summer, I am starting to think it is OK to have only one course. Or a main course and a bowl of cut-up watermelon.

But what should that main course be? I am experimenting. So far this week we've had four summery meals.

On Monday we had White Bean Salad. The ingredients were 1 can of white beans, frozen peas, fresh mint, chopped up red and yellow bell peppers, garlic, olive oil, red wine vinegar, oregano, and feta cheese. The directions were to mix it all together and let it stand for 30 minutes. What could be easier? I thought it was delicious. Rocket Boy said hmm and ate it. Boos frowned and said "what is this?"

On Tuesday we had Scrambled Eggs with Shrimp. The ingredients were eggs, shrimp, soy sauce, sesame oil, mushrooms, and butter. The directions were to fry the mushrooms in butter, add the shrimp, stir the eggs and flavorings together and throw them in, and then scramble. What could be easier? I thought it was quite yummy. Rocket Boy had seconds. Boos frowned and ate the cut up nectarines instead.

On Wednesday we had Tuna Pasta Salad. The ingredients were small pasta shells, canned tuna, chopped celery, frozen peas, leftover chopped up bell peppers, and some lite mayo, lite Miracle Whip, and Greek yogurt for the dressing. The directions were to cook the pasta, mix everything together, and let it chill for a while. What could be easier? I thought it was delicious. Rocket Boy said hmm. Boos poked at it and ate the cut up watermelon instead.

Tonight we had Berry Breakfast Crepes. The ingredients were blueberries, raspberries, lemon juice, sugar, flour, evaporated milk, an egg, and ricotta cheese. This was a little more complicated because I had to actually make crepes, but we have a new pan which made it almost effortless. The filling of ricotta and fruit seemed delightful. I thought they were yummy. Rocket Boy said they were OK. Baby A actually ate his, but Baby B ran outside to play with the water table.

Each night Rocket Boy has said to me, "why don't we just have fish sticks?"

Summer meals, a work in progress.

Car shopping

Rocket Boy's old car is on its last legs, so I got the idea that we should be proactive and buy a new one. We've been paying Ridgecrest mechanics to repair the car on and off all spring, because it failed its smog test, which meant we couldn't register it. Several fixes later, it managed to pass smog, but it's continued to misbehave. Rocket Boy blames this on the incompetence of Ridgecrest mechanics. But last week he took it to yet another Ridgecrest mechanic, who diagnosed an interesting problem -- the car needed a part that would cost $1700, unless we could find a used part, in which case it might be as little as $1400. The mechanic, who seems an honest sort, recommended against getting the part. He told Rocket Boy that when these sorts of parts start to fail -- and for the life of me I don't remember what the part was -- it means that a whole lot of other parts are about to fail too, and it's time to move on.

The car, a Mitsubishi Montero, is 19 years old and has about a million miles on it. Still, Rocket Boy doesn't want to let it go. But then I hit on the right thing to say. I said "You know, we don't have to get rid of the Montero. We can keep it as long as you like. We'll just get a THIRD car." (Actually, it will be a FOURTH car, because we still have one sitting on the driveway in Boulder. It's 25 years old. I just got the insurance bill for it. But I digress.)

Rocket Boy said OK, since you put it that way, maybe we can think about a new car. That was all the encouragement I needed. To distract myself from icky things like the fact that our rental house is now as of June 7th officially in foreclosure, I started researching cars. We wanted to find a not too big SUV with lots of room for people and cargo, good gas mileage, and low cost. I asked people's opinions, I read Consumer Reports, I read other reviews online, I looked at automakers' websites. And I came to the obvious conclusion that we needed to look at cars in the flesh, as it were.

So today around noon we all piled into my Subaru and drove 85 miles to Victorville, where there are car dealerships. Actually, Ridgecrest has a few car dealerships and it was probably very bad of us to ignore them and go to Victorville. Paving Victorville's streets, not Ridgecrest's, and all that. But we didn't actually BUY anything yet, so it's not so bad.

We went to three dealerships: Mitsubishi, Toyota, and Ford. We decided to look at new cars, even though we're probably going to buy used.

At the Mitsubishi dealership, a pleasant salesman in a suit minus the jacket (it was in the 90s) came over to us and showed us around. We looked at an Outlander and an Endeavor. I was hoping we'd like the Mitsubishis, since the car we're giving up on is a Mitsubishi. But the odd thing was that Rocket Boy didn't really fit in them. He's tall, with a long straight back, and his head almost touched the ceiling in these cars.

Next, we went down the street to the Toyota dealership. They were having a big used car sales event, and we couldn't find anyone to help us. That was a first for me at a car dealership! Finally someone told us to go inside and ask the receptionist for help. She called on her loudspeaker for someone from sales, and then went back to looking at pictures of high-heeled shoes on her computer. No one came. After a while she noticed us still sitting there (really, we're hard not to notice, with the twins screaming away) and called again. Finally a nice older man wearing a Hawaiian shirt came to help us. He showed us a Highlander, a 4Runner, and a RAV4. I had thought the Highlander would be the best choice, and Rocket Boy did like it. But the car we both REALLY liked was the RAV4. I thought it would be too little, but it's an oddly spacious car.

Then we drove to the Ford dealership, where a very forceful young man in a bright red shirt showed us an Escape. He told me that he'd recently sold three Escapes to people who were trading in Subaru Foresters. I said "We're NOT trading in the Forester," and he seemed disappointed. He said, "We love to get those cars." I kept looking back at my car to be sure they weren't surreptitiously towing it away. Anyway, Rocket Boy liked the Escape very much too. Again, it was a smaller car than I thought he'd like. This is why you have to look at cars in the flesh, not just online.

Boo bears had fun car-shopping -- they climbed in and around every car we looked at, demonstrating how easy or difficult it was to crawl from the back seat to the cargo area, playing with the mirrors, sitting in Daddy's lap when he was trying to decide whether or not he felt comfortable in the driver's seat. But they got very tired in the heat, as did we all. After the Ford dealership we went to a Starbucks across the street for drinks and snacks, and then got on the road back to Ridgecrest. We were home a little before seven.

So, a Toyota RAV4 or a Ford Escape? Or something else entirely? Stay tuned.

Sunny days

It is finally warming up a bit -- supposed to be in the mid 90s the rest of the week, and you know that means 100 is around the corner. And then I'll start complaining about that. But right now it's really pleasant. Warm enough in the mornings for two naked boys to frolic in and around their water table. I can't post pics of this -- they're all too graphic. Here's a pic from a few weeks ago -- with clothes on.

It gives the general idea.

We have a nice morning schedule. Every weekday after breakfast I get them out of their pajamas and into their nakedness. Then I start a load of laundry -- yes, laundry every day -- and also start watering a tree. When we moved into this house, more than 2 years ago, the backyard was full of fruit trees. I think there were at least a dozen, maybe as many as 15.

Now there are 8, and of those, two are kind of questionable -- they died and came back as shoots off the dead trunk. With our luck, we'll kill a few more this year.

But we're trying NOT to kill any more, and the key to our plan to not kill more trees is to water them! Brilliant, right? So every morning I turn the hose on, very very low, not much more than a drip, put it next to a fruit tree, and set the timer for 20 minutes. When the timer goes off, I move it to another tree. I water three trees a day (a dying rosebush gets to be the 3rd tree on one day, for a total of 9 things watered every 3 days). Then I start over (I water on one weekend day and take the other off). That way I know which trees get watered each day. If it's Monday or Thursday it's the apricot, fig, and rosebush. Etc.

The strategy already seems to be paying off. None of the trees look stressed, and the apricot tree has not dropped all its green apricots, as it did last year.

Once the laundry and watering is underway, the twins and I feed the tortoise a dish of grape leaves and hollyhock leaves. After it finishes eating, I take it out of its pen and let it forage. There isn't much to forage for these days, but it walks diligently around the entire yard, looking.

The twins spend much of the morning playing with their water table, which they seem to find endlessly entertaining. An alternate pastime is riding their trikes.

Around 10, we have snack -- a muffin, a scone, maybe some fish crackers or grapes. We eat it on the patio, and sometimes it ends up in the water table. Later in the afternoon, I see little birds pecking up all the crumbs.

When I'm not working on one of my tasks, I sit down in a patio chair and watch the babies play. Our yard is full of birds these days -- mostly mourning doves and house sparrows, but also mockingbirds, great-tailed grackles, and hummingbirds. The grape vine has tiny grapes on it, the pomegranate bush has at least 15 fruits growing. The fruit trees aren't dead.

This evening we took a walk after dinner and Sesame Street. Baby B rode in the stroller, but Baby A insisted on riding his tricycle. We thus made very slow progress, and Rocket Boy got irritated -- he was hoping for some exercise. I was remembering how easy it was to take them for an evening walk when they were infants. We could be out at 8, 9, 10 o'clock at night. It didn't matter. They slept in their carseats in the stroller.

Of course they also got up at 3 am, screaming to be fed. Every age seems to have its pluses and minuses.

I'm trying to enjoy what we have now.

Summer is not here

A few weeks ago I was going to write a post called "Signs of Summer." The most notable sign I had come up with was the lack of my socks in the laundry -- evidence that I had switched from shoes to sandals. I was sure I'd think of more signs as I wrote the post.

But here it is June 1st, and summer has not arrived. It's the oddest thing. Day after day we have highs in the seventies. MAYBE low eighties. I realize that those temps could be considered summer in other areas, but NOT in Ridgecrest. In Ridgecrest, summer is when it goes over 100. At this rate I'm wondering if it ever will.

Here are the predicted high temps for the next seven days: Thursday 78, Friday 84, Saturday 82, Sunday 79, Monday 80, Tuesday 83, Wednesday 84. Yes, it looks like a warming trend, and maybe ten days from now we'll hit 90, but the way things have been going, we could just as easily drop back into the 70s.

There's a chance of RAIN this weekend. A small chance, but still a chance. Weird. And the wind keeps blowing and blowing, day after day.

I know it sounds like I'm complaining about the weather, and really I'm not. These are wonderful, livable temperatures. I still feel human -- we all do. The summer doldrums are far off in the future.

But everyone here is a bit discombobulated by the weather. It's not quite like a drought -- where you wait and wait for the rain or the snow, and it doesn't come, and then you worry about the lack of water and rationing and all that. I'm not worried about anything bad happening if it doesn't get hot. The Ridgecrest summer heat isn't actually GOOD for anything that I know of, other than drying clothes on the clothesline. Quite the opposite.

But we're USED to it! We're USED to all the misery that the summer heat brings. I'm all ready to be miserable, but the heat isn't here, so I'm not.

I go on drying clothes in the dryer, wearing shirts with sleeves, and wondering what aspect of climate change is causing this very peculiar weather.